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This is a little old but....

We've all been asked at one point or another, usually by the type of half-drunk guy who wears sandles in the winter and spends a lot of time toying with his gnarly hair, whether if given the chance we would kill a young Hitler before he came to power and wreaked havoc on the world. Now comes a modern twist on the philosophical query for the politician in the Age of Abramoff: Would you save your unpcoming state senate primary opponent if he was choking in a restaurant? The answer for one Democrat in Maryland a couple weeks ago was an emphatic yes.

From AP:

State Sen. John Giannetti was waiting for his take-out order of Italian food at a Maryland restaurant on Monday when he saw a man choking. He rushed over, performed the Heimlich maneuver and dislodged a chunk of seafood -- saving the life of his political rival.

The choking man, Jim Rosapepe, is challenging Giannetti in the Democratic primary for the suburban Washington district.

*****

Rosapepe thanked his opponent for saving him.

"Obviously, it's an incredible coincidence, and a happy coincidence," said Rosapepe, a member of the University of Maryland system's Board of Regents.

And that is a sound of the wind suddenly being taken out of a campaign's sails. When the major difference between the candidates becomes which one was seafood consumer and which was seafood dislodger, it's time to pack it in and plan for 2008.